Email
Print
Volunteers needed to clean up the lake
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: September 16, 2009
Maintaining Lake Norman's cleanliness and beauty remains a top priority for members of the local Save Our Lake Organization (SOLO) as they plan their annual NC Big Sweep for early October.
To be held Oct. 3 from 9 a.m. to noon, members of SOLO and volunteers across the region will gather in Iredell, Mecklenburg, Lincoln and Catawba counties to clean up several of the Lake Norman islands and their shorelines.
With some Boy Scout troops and school groups already signed up to volunteer in the one-day cleanup, SOLO's Jill Feldmeyer said the organization seeks more helping hands as the event nears. Individuals with boats, utilized for transporting people to and from islands on the lake, are most needed, she added.
"We're going to concentrate on going out to the islands and cleaning those up," she said of the Iredell County cleanup efforts, which will include two sites: Lake Norman State Park and Pinnacle access in Mooresville, at the N.C. 150 bridge.
The state park, she said, would be best for smaller children because debris pickup with occur along the shoreline, rather than on the islands.
With the Big Sweep slightly expanded this year to include more sites – such as Davidson and Cornelius – and cover more shoreline, Feldmeyer said SOLO is hoping to also expand this year's local event as a whole, making it "bigger and better" than years past.
"It's going to be amazing to see how much ground we cover in Lake Norman and how much trash we pull out in three hours," she added.
Not only does Lake Norman provide drinking water to residents in the Carolinas, it helps to support several hydropower, coal and nuclear power facilities as well as a variety of businesses that rely on the Catawba River basin to operate, Feldmeyer noted, restating the SOLO mission statement of promoting a clean Lake Norman.
Last year, approximately 4,850 pounds of trash – including tires, cigarette butts, a bicycle, a locked safe, six pack rings and a manmade toilet – was collected from the lake. That amount surpassed 2007's total by more than double, with approximately 1,800 pounds collected that year.
"We're trying to grow it every year, but it takes a lot of people," said Feldmeyer. "We can do our part and that's what it's about."
Just one year ago, the Catawba-Wateree River, which feeds Lake Norman, was listed as the nation's most endangered river by American Rivers, a national river advocacy organization. And although that ranking has vastly improved – the river is no longer listed in the top 10 – Feldmeyer said regular cleanups and maintenance are vital to improving water quality and the beauty of both the river and Lake Norman.
For more information or to volunteer for the 2009 Big Sweep, contact Feldmeyer at 704-458-1163 or jillbf@charter.net
And for additional information on the NC Big Sweep, visit www.NCBigsweep.org
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
